New Delhi: Polling was conducted peacefully in 36,823 polling stations spread across 165 Assembly Constituencies today, in the states of Uttarakhand, Goa and for the second phase of Uttar Pradesh, the Election Commission of India stated here today. The elections were conducted for single phase election in 40 ACs in Goa, 70 ACs in Uttarakhand and for 55 ACs in Uttar Pradesh’s 2nd Phase of their Assembly Elections.
The voter turnout reported by 5 pm was 75.29% in Goa, 59.37% in Uttarakhand and 60.44% in Uttar Pradesh. Fate of a total of 1,519 candidates contesting in this phase across Goa, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, including 158 women candidates, has been sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Some of the prominent candidates in this phase are Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and former chief minister Harish Rawat (Congress) and Uttarakhand Congress chief Ganesh Godiyal, as well as senior Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan, who is contesting from Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. He is contesting the polls from behind the bars. In Panaji (Goa), the son of former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar (who was also a cabinet minister in the BJP government at Centre), Utpal Parrikar, is contesting as an Independent against Atanasio Monserrate of the BJP.
Of the 55 seats in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP had won 38 in 2017, the Samajwadi Party won 15 and the Congress won 2.
Election in Goa is being seen with interest. Here even as the Congress had won the maximum number of seats in 2017, the BJP had managed to form the government.
Nearly 2.95 crore general electors including over 5 lakh first-time electors, spread across 36,823 polling stations were registered to exercise their franchise across 165 ACs in the three states.In this phase, over 2.19 lakh Persons with Disability (PwD) electors and 4.67 lakh 80+ electors were registered to vote across 165 Assembly Constituencies.
Live monitoring and webcasting mechanism for more than 50% of Polling Stations including critical and vulnerable polling booths was put in place to ensure a safe and secure atmosphere in polling areas.
Webcasting arrangements were put in place for all 1722 polling stations in Goa, 5828 Polling Stations in Uttarakhand and 11,448 polling stations for the second phase in Uttar Pradesh.
Since the date of notification of Election till Poll day of second phase, record seizure of Rs. 224.71 Crore has already been achieved in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa. The seizure figure, which includes seizure of cash, liquor, narcotics, freebies upto poll day is more than the total combined seizure of Rs. 203.78 Crore in the entire General Election to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa in the last assembly elections of 2017. 2400 Flying Squads (FS) and 2654 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) were operationalised to check movement of cash, liquor, drugs and freebies in the three states.
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– global bihari bureau
